A Digital Adventure
by Rainbow35
Summary: The Digidestined are celebrating the one-year anniversary of their first trip to the Digital World, when suddenly Izzy gets an email from Gennai saying the Digital World is in danger and only they can help!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Sorry in advance for this being so short and so bad. I haven't written any proper fanfiction in a while so I'm attempting to get back into it, and this is the result.

* * *

It was August 1st, the year 2000, exactly a year after the Digidestined had first gone to the Digital World. The eight of them were having a picnic together, to celebrate the anniversary of their adventures and reminisce.

Kari was halfway through biting into a sandwich when Izzy's yelling made everyone jump.

"I just got an email from Gennai!"

Everyone turned towards Izzy, "What?" Matt yelled, "What does it say?"

"Well, I haven't opened it yet..."

"Open it!" the Digidestined yelled in unison.

Izzy opened the email and read it aloud, "Digidestined, I'm writing to inform you of something very important. Disaster has struck the Digital World and only you can help. I'll explain the exact nature of the disaster later. In the meantime, attached is a link that will open a gate to the Digital World when you click it. Come as soon as possible, we're counting on you. Gennai."

Everyone was silent.

"No..." Tai whispered, "Again? It was only last year that we sealed away the forces of darkness for good!"

"I don't want to have to fight again!" Mimi yelled, "I've had enough of that to last a lifetime!"

"We all have," Sora said, "But if the Digital World is in danger... We don't have a choice, do we?"

"Besides," TK chimed in, "This means we'll get to see the digimon again!"

"Yay!" Kari cheered, "I'll get to see Gatomon!"

"And Patamon!" TK said happily.

Matt grimaced, "It's not that simple. I mean, yeah, we'll get to see our partners again, but who knows how dangerous this new evil could be?"

"Maybe we should prepare first," Joe said.

"How? Practice our kickboxing skills?" Tai said, punching and kicking the air to illustrate.

Sora sighed, "No, Tai, not like that... You know we can't fight whatever it is ourselves, that's what our partners are for..."

"I know that!" Tai said exasperatedly, "Which is why I'm saying it's pointless for us to prepare!"

"Why do you always do this, Tai?" Matt said.

"Do what?"

"No, no, no! Not now! Don't fight!" Mimi squealed.

"She's right, guys, break it up!" Sora said, stepping between them.

"Tai," Izzy said, "You couldn't seriously be suggesting we go to the Digital World _right now_, are you?"

Tai shrugged, "Well..."

"Just think about it a little. Joe and Matt are right, we do need to prepare! We'll need some food, at least!"

Tai stared pointedly at the picnic laid out before them that they'd barely gotten to start into.

"We could bring the picnic?" TK said, as if reading Tai's mind.

"If we're going now, I need to go get toilet paper and an emergency first aid kit!" Joe said, and ran off.

"So we are leaving today!" Tai said.

Matt sighed and shook his head.

Mimi hesitated, "Well... I guess I'll go get the survival kit I had last time. Maybe it'll be of some use to us now."

"Everyone's leaving..." TK said.

"Don't worry, TK," Matt said, "Everything's gonna be just fine, just you wait."

"...Right, I guess it wouldn't be too bad if we did leave today," Sora relented, "Since that's the idea everyone's settled on," she looked to the five still remaining, apart from herself, "So everyone go get some preparations to go to the Digital World, okay? You know, food, clothes, survival kits... And we'll meet back here in two hours to go there."

Everyone nodded, "Alright."

They then all went their separate ways, to prepare to travel to the Digital World once more.


	2. Chapter 2

Two hours later, the Digidestined met back where they had previously been picnicking. Well, all of them but one.

Tai looked at his watch, for the fifth time that minute, and sighed. "Where is Joe? I called him and told him, two hours! What could he be doing?"

"Knowing him, bringing five different first aid kits," Mimi said.

"That still shouldn't take this long!" Tai said.

"Tai, calm down! It's fine! It doesn't matter if we go there a few minutes later than we agreed!" Matt yelled.

Tai gritted his teeth, but said nothing more.

Finally, two minutes later, Joe arrived.

"Hey, guys, sorry I'm late!" he yelled, as he ran up to them.

"About time, where were you?" Tai said abruptly.

"Never mind that, we're all here now, so let's go!" Izzy said, trying to avoid a fight starting. He took out his laptop and clicked the link in Gennai's email.

The entire screen lit up with a bright light, which began to engulf them all. "Everyone, hold on tight!"

The Digidestined were all sucked into the screen, which then sucked itself in, leaving no trace of them in the real world.

Everyone slowly woke up, blinking and groaning. Tai and Matt immediately searched for Kari and TK, but were relieved to find them only a few feet away.

Sora was the first to stand up properly, "Everyone's here, right? One, two, three, four... Eight. Yep, that's all of us. Is everybody alright?"

The others nodded, and looked around. They had landed in a vast desert, unlike anywhere they'd seen before. It honestly looked more like a normal desert, except for the fact that there were digital tumbleweeds blowing around and sparking as they did so.

TK touched the ground with his hand, and scooped up the material there. "Ordinary sand?"

Kari examined it, "I dunno, it looks like it."

"Hmm..." Izzy said, "Not beyond the bounds of possibility; we've seen plenty of ordinary, earth-like materials in the Digital World before. Why should this part be any different?"

"So, where're our digimon?" TK asked.

"I don't know, to be perfectly honest." Izzy said.

"What? You mean we're here, in a digital desert, all alone without our partners? What will we do?!" Mimi cried out.

"No, no, don't worry Mimi. We'll find them!" Sora said, and took out her digivice. "These should tell us where they are. They always showed us where the others were, remember?"

Mimi took out her digivice, and the others did the same. Each one had a red dot, and beeped.

Tai and Matt compared where their digivices were telling them their partners were.

"So... It says Agumon's over here," Tai said, pointing to the west, "But Gabumon's over there," he pointed to the southeast.

"Damn it!" Matt said, "We can't all split up, but it would take way too long for all of us to go in eight different directions!"

"Maybe some of them are together," TK suggested.

Joe nodded, "Yeah. They wouldn't have all just gone in a completely different direction, some of them would have to have stuck together!"

"Matt, do you think Gabumon and Patamon could be in the same place?"

"I don't know, let's see."

Matt and TK compared their digivices.

"Yes! They are in the same place! 'Cause they're brothers too in a way, right Matt?" TK said excitedly.

Matt smiled, "Yeah," he then addresses the others, "If Gabumon and Patamon are together, maybe some of the others are too, so we could split up in groups and meet back here."

"You just said we couldn't do that!" Tai said, "But yeah, let's do it."

"I said we couldn't each go off on our own, not that we couldn't split into three or four groups! Eight would take far too long and be too dangerous, but as long as nobody's alone, we shouldn't be in too much danger."

"But aren't the digimon here all good after us saving the world?" Tai said.

"We don't know that," Izzy said, "In theory, yes, but if there's a new distortion here then there's no way of knowing. I also think that maybe we should wait for further contact from Gennai before-"

"No way! You know how that guy is!" Tai said.

"Yeah! And I wanna see Patamon again!" TK said.

"The digimon wouldn't know to find us here," Sora said, "If they did, then it would make sense to wait. But the way it is now, we'll have to go find them ourselves. It seems that Biyomon and Palmon are close to each other, so me and Mimi will be one group."

"Tai, I bet Agumon and Gatomon are together!" Kari said, running over to her brother with her digivice. They checked, and sure enough, that was the case.

"So hopefully that means that Tentomon and Gomamon are together," Izzy said.

He and Joe compared their digivices.

"No luck," Joe said, "What'll we do now?"

Izzy thought, "Maybe they're near another group. And if they're not..."

Joe compared with Mimi, "Gomamon's with Palmon and Biyomon!"

"So that means Tentomon must not be with them," Izzy checked his digivice's reading with Tai and Kari's, "And he's not with Agumon and Gatomon either. I really hope he's with Gabumon and Patamon, otherwise I'm not sure what I'll do."

TK compared his digivice to Izzy's, and squinted at the two of them, "It's not the same... But it's close enough! You can come with us, we'll just have to detour a bit!"

Izzy smiled, "Great!"

"So that's it," Sora said, "Me, Mimi and Joe; Tai and Kari; and TK, Izzy and Matt. We'll all meet up at some point, alright?"

"Of course!" Tai said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

The three groups then left, following their digivices, and went their separate ways.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks very much, Sora Loves Rain, for giving me my first and currently only review on this story. :D I appreciate it!

* * *

[Kari and Tai]

"Tai, how long have we been walking? My feet hurt," Kari whined.

"Only a few hours. Come on, don't give up yet! We're gonna see Agumon and Gatomon soon!"

Kari brightened considerably. "Yeah! Are we almost there?" she looked at her digivice, "Hmm, we must have at least a day to go..."

"Yeah, but it's still daylight, so come on, we've got to keep going and cover as much ground as possible before nightfall!"

"Okay..."

"Look, if you get too tired, I'll give you a piggyback, okay? But I know you can keep going. Maybe we'll rest for a bit soon."

Kari smiled, "Thanks, Tai."

They kept walking until Kari couldn't go any further, at which point they sat down to eat and rest.

"Wow, you brought chocolate biscuits! I wish I'd thought of that!"

"Don't worry Kari, there's more than enough for both of us. Especially if the others don't know about them!" Tai winked.

Kari giggled, "But Tai, that's not fair..."

"Of course it is; there's more for us!" he said, handing her some biscuits.

Kari laughed again, "But when we meet up with the others again, we're sharing them!"

"Only if there's any left!" Tai said, and also started to laugh.

As the siblings ate their snacks, an ominous wind started blowing.

"Tai, what's that?" Kari asked, suddenly scared.

"It's only wind. Don't tell me you're scared of the wind?"

Kari shuddered, but shook her head. "Of course not."

"_I could've sworn I heard it saying something..._" she thought.

They packed up their food, and continued walking after having rested for a while. The wind was still blowing though, and kept getting louder and stronger.

Kari shivered. "Is it me, or is that wind really cold?"

"I think it's you. Are you okay? You're not sick, are you? Did you bring a jacket?"

"N-No, it's fine, I'm fine. It's just that wind..."

Tai took a jacket out of his backpack and gave it to Kari, who wrapped it around herself and shivered.

"Walking should warm you up too, but I hope that helps."

Kari smiled, "It helps. Thanks, Tai."

"_I'm still freezing, and it's not a natural kind of cold. What is that wind, and where is it coming from? I hope we find Gatomon and Agumon soon, maybe they can help..."_

[Sora, Mimi and Joe]

Sora, Joe and Mimi had been walking for hours, and had reached the end of the desert a while ago and entered a forest that seemed somewhat familiar. From the beeping of their digivices, it seemed that they were close to reaching their partners.

"Guys, can we rest?" Mimi said.

"Again? It's only been an hour." Joe said.

"Yeah, we can rest. I think we're almost there anyway." Sora said.

"Thanks," Mimi said, and sat down on the ground, "I forgot how tiring this all was. I'll be a marathon walker by the time we're done here."

"It might not take that long, you know," Sora said.

"Yeah, maybe some wire came loose somewhere and all we have to do is put it back and we're done!" Joe said.

"But Gennai said it was a disaster, or an emergency, didn't he?" Mimi said.

"Maybe he was exaggerating?" Joe said.

"Mimi's right, we probably will have to fight something, and it's probably bigger than something that they could have dealt with themselves. But that doesn't necessarily mean it'll take too long. Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon combined should be able to deal with whatever it is, easy."

"This is still more than enough walking for me!" Mimi complained.

Sora laughed, "Yeah, we'll all be champion walkers before we know it! Of course, my soccer training gives me an edge when it comes to fitness."

"I've never done anything like that, this is it!" Mimi said.

"I don't really walk that much either back at home..." Joe said.

"You're different, you're older than me and you're a boy! It's easier for you!" Mimi said.

Joe looked helplessly to Sora, who shrugged.

"...Anyway, we're resting now, and we can stay and rest for as long as you need, so it's fine!" Sora said, trying to be cheerful.

"Yeah, you're right," Mimi said, "Sorry for being a drama queen."

"No problem!" Joe said.

"You're not a drama queen," Sora laughed.

"I'm not far from one though," Mimi said, and dramatically mimed fainting. The three of them laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

[Matt, TK and Izzy]

Matt, TK and Izzy had been walking, mostly in silence, for quite a while. TK was gritting his teeth, trying not to complain about the distance. He didn't want to seem to be the same little kid he had been a year ago. Eventually, however, he couldn't take it any longer and just dropped onto the ground.

Matt turned around suddenly, "TK! Are you okay?"

TK nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. Can we rest?"

"Of course!"

Izzy was studying his digivice intently, "It seems that Tentomon is very near. I think I'm going to go investigate since it doesn't look very far. You both stay here and rest, and I'll be back," he said, and walked away.

"I hope he finds Tentomon," TK said, "'Cause even if it's not Patamon or Gabumon, I'll be really glad to see at least one of the digimon again!"

Matt smiled, and sat down next to TK, "Yeah, me too."

"Are we close to finding them, Matt?" TK asked, checking his digivice.

Matt checked his too, "I think so. Maybe a few more hours."

TK yawned, "That's great," he said, and leaned against his brother and began to fall asleep.

Matt put his arm around TK, glad to get to be his big brother again. They hadn't seen each other much since about a year ago, and Matt had missed TK, especially the feeling of taking care of him and protecting him. He knew TK had grown up a lot, but he'd still always be his little brother.

TK was now fast asleep, and the two waited for Izzy to return.

[Tai and Kari]

Tai and Kari were in the same desert as they had been, and were still walking. It seemed that with every hour that passed, the wind that was blowing grew stronger and more intimidating, and Kari grew colder.

Kari's teeth were chattering, "I-I'm so- so cold, Tai," she said weakly.

Tai held her close, trying to protect her from the wind, "Kari!"

"I-" Kari was interrupted by her intense shivering. The wind was blowing sand all around them now, and they could barely see.

Tai pulled his goggles down over his eyes, "Damn it, it's no use trying to go on, we can't see anything in this sandstorm. I guess we'd better stay put 'til it dies down."

"It's calling me, Tai," Kari said.

"What is?" Tai shouted.

"The wind," she answered, "It says- It says-"

Kari couldn't finish her sentence before she fainted.

"Kari!" Tai screamed, "Kari! Are you okay? Kari!"

Kari didn't move, she was limp in his arms. But she'd stopped shivering, and when Tai touched her forehead it didn't feel too warm or too cold.

The wind slowly began to die down, and Kari began to glow with a white light that they'd seen before.

"Gatomon..." she breathed, and a pillar of light shot up from her body into the sky.

Tai stared at it, "Woah," he looked back to Kari, who was still unconscious. He put his goggles back up on his head, as the wind had completely stopped now.

His digivice started beeping frantically, but before he could check it properly he was interrupted by two voices.

"Kari!"

"Tai!"

"Agumon, Gatomon!" Tai greeted them ecstatically.

The two digimon ran over, "What happened to Kari?" Gatomon asked, and reached a paw towards her.

Kari opened her eyes, "Gatomon! Agumon!" she beamed, and seemed to come to life as the glowing light around her faded.

"We saw a huge beam of light in the sky," Gatomon said.

"And it had to be Kari!" Agumon said.

"So we followed it here,"

"And found you guys!"

Kari ran over to Gatomon and hugged her tightly, "Gatomon... I've missed you."

"Me too, Kari."

Tai hugged Agumon and tried to hold back tears of happiness and relief, while Kari was openly sobbing.

"I'm so glad- Gatomon!" Kari said.

"Me too, Kari, me too," Gatomon said reassuringly, holding her close, "We're together now, as we always knew we would be once more. But you know, that in our hearts, we were never really apart."

Kari nodded.

"There is always a part of me within you, and always a part of you with me," Gatomon said, touching the whistle Kari had given her when they parted.

Kari smiled, "Thanks, Gatomon. I know. I still missed you, and I'm so glad to see you again!"

Gatomon smiled, "Same here."

Tai and Agumon were still in an embrace, with the tightness with which they hugged each other showing their emotions without needing any words.

They came apart, "So," Tai said, "Should we go find the others now?"

Kari nodded, "Yeah. I guess we should go back the way we came."

"Or just follow the nearest signal," Tai said, taking out his digivice.

"Too bad we don't have our own digivices," Gatomon said, "Or we could have gone to find you."

"What brings you here, anyway?" Agumon asked.

"That's a good point. Is there some kind of emergency we need to know about?"

"Izzy got an email from Gennai saying something was wrong and that we had to come here as soon as possible," Tai said.

"I'd kinda thought you'd know about the situation already, whatever it is," Kari said.

"He didn't tell you?" Gatomon asked.

Tai shook his head, "Nope. He said he'd tell us later, but we figured there was no point waiting around for that and that we should split up and find you guys."

"The others are all in groups too," Agumon said, "We all split up a while after you left."

"We know," Kari said, "TK, Matt and Izzy's digivices pointed in about the same direction, and so did Mimi, Sora and Joe's."

"Yeah, that sounds right," Agumon said.

Tai looked back to his digivice, which now had many different beeping dots showing the locations of the others, "Come on now, let's go meet up with everyone else!"


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks very much to Digi-FanCapp for reviewing! :D

[TK, Matt and Izzy]

Izzy had returned with Tentomon, and the four set off again in search of Gabumon and Patamon.

"So, you didn't hear anything about there being some kind of disaster or evil here?" Izzy asked Tentomon.

"Nope, nothing at all. There's actually been a few strange things happening, but it didn't seem like anything too bad... There's been more wind than usual, some colder weather than usual in places it should be warm, and some digieggs turned out to be empty when they hatched."

"Isn't that enough to raise suspicion?" Matt asked, "Things out of the ordinary don't just happen like that."

"That's true, but nobody connected those things together, and they really don't sound like an evil plan, do they?"

"Not really," TK said, "Unless someone just wants people to be cold."

Matt shook his head, "No, there's got to be more to it than that. I think- I think those things aren't the evil itself, just side effects of it. Something else must be happening behind the scenes that has a few weird side-effects, because some weather changes and empty digieggs aren't enough to be called a disaster!"

"Unless Gennai was exaggerating, of course." Izzy said.

"And what, dragging us all the way here for nothing? Yeah, we get to see the digimon again, but I don't think he would have created a digital gate for us if it wasn't important."

"True..." Izzy said, now deep in thought. A noise from his laptop startled him, "Oh! It must be another email from Gennai!"

He switched on his laptop and checked, and sure enough, it was another email. Izzy read it aloud, "I see that you've all come to the Digital World now, that's great. I really appreciate your help, but sadly, I can't assist you any further apart from telling you that there is another great evil you must defeat. Gennai."

"Well, that wasn't very helpful," Matt said.

"We know that there's an evil to defeat," Izzy said.

"Which is what I just said a minute ago."

"Yeah, but at least now we have confirmation. Maybe he'll give us more details later. He's never really been the type to be very helpful upfront."

"Yeah," Matt said, rolling his eyes as he remembered the various riddles and nonsense Gennai tended to come out with.

"Either way, let's go!" TK said, "We've still gotta find Patamon and Gabumon, evil or no evil! Right?"

Matt nodded, "Yeah, you're right, TK. Let's keep going.

[Mimi, Sora and Joe]

After walking for quite a while longer, Mimi, Sora and Joe all stopped suddenly as Sora's digivice started beeping a huge amount.

"Biyomon must be near, right? That means Palmon and Gomamon must be too!" Mimi said.

"Surely if they were all together, your digivices would be acting the same as mine. So Biyomon must be the closest."

Sure enough, Biyomon flew into view. "Sora!" she exclaimed, speeding up and nearly crashing into Sora.

"Biyomon! I'm so happy to see you again!" Sora said, hugging Biyomon close.

"Me too, Sora! I never want us to be apart again!"

Mimi and Joe ignored Sora and Biyomon's emotional reunion, and held their digivices up and looked around for their own partners. Mimi's digivice was the next to react, then Joe's.

Palmon and Gomamon rushed over, and tackled their respective parters to the ground in their excitement.

"Mimi!"

"Joe!"

"I missed you so much!"

"Nice to see you, buddy!"

After the three pairs had reunited, Biyomon spoke, "So, what brings you all the way to the Digital World?"

"Gennai told us there was some kind of emergency," Joe said.

"Oh. Well, it's the first I've heard of it."

"Me too," Palmon said.

Gomamon thought for a bit, "Hmm, well, I did hear some rumours from the fish, but they say strange things all the time. Then again, the strange things they say are often right. Anyway, they said that some weird things had been happening on land, and also that in the sea there's been some strangely cold currents in places there shouldn't be, and that something evil must be causing it. But I don't see why something evil would use all their powers just to turn some waters cold."

"It must be doing something else, too!" Biyomon said.

"Yeah, no evil villain in their right mind would only mess with water temperature," Palmon said.

"What could it be planning?" Sora wondered aloud, "That is, if there's even anything behind it at all."

"This is all important to discuss, but shouldn't we go find the others now?" Joe said.

Mimi nodded, "Yeah, we said we would."

Sora held up her digivice to read its signals saying where the others were, "Alright then, let's go find them again!"


	6. Chapter 6

The Digidestined had all found their respective partners, and then found each other again.

"Now what?" Matt asked, "Where do we go from here?"

"Well," Tai said, "Now that we know that there is something- or someone- behind this, we should go find them!"

"I don't know if it's that easy, Tai," Sora said.

"Guys," Izzy said, "Did anything strike you as strange since we've been here? Apart from the wind that Tai and Kari mentioned?"

Everyone looked around.

"Not really," Mimi said, "Other than that I get tired just as easily as I did last time."

"It's completely deserted!" Izzy said, "None of us have seen any digimon here at all other than our partners! Doesn't that seem suspicious?"

"Now that I think about it, you're right," Matt said, "There's usually a lot more wild digimon around."

"The population did decline around the time of the Dark Masters," Tentomon said, "But it had been increasing, so you make a good point, Izzy. I hadn't been paying much attention; I could sense that you were here so I was just waiting to find you, but you're right."

"I have been seeing less and less other digimon around," Gabumon said, "And now that I think about it, it is strange. But it happened so slowly I didn't notice, especially since me and Patamon were together the whole time."

Patamon nodded.

"This must be the disaster Gennai was talking about! Whatever it is that's creating cold winds and cold currents must be taking digimon with it!" Izzy said.

"Unless they just got cold and went somewhere warmer," Gomamon said, "I didn't notice any lack of digimon in the sea, and I don't think the fish did either; they would've said something."

"Then it must only affect land digimon," Izzy said, now typing on his laptop, "And I suppose air digimon too. Biyomon, Tentomon, did you notice the amount of digimon in the air?"

Biyomon and Tentomon both looked up to the sky.

"I didn't mean right now," Izzy said.

"Well, there's definitely none at this second," Tentomon said.

"I didn't really notice," Biyomon said, "But thinking back, I think the number did get less and less. I'm not usually in the sky that often, though."

"Patamon?" Izzy asked.

Patamon shook his head, "I'm never usually in the sky either. Sorry."

Izzy sighed, "Well, I've got a tentative hypothesis as to the digimon affected. Not that that helps us really, since we still don't know why or how.

"And our digimon weren't affected," Kari said, "Maybe they're immune to it?"

"Or maybe it just thought to leave us alone," Gatomon said.

"Or save us for last," Gomamon said.

Palmon gulped, "And then do what to us?"

"Well, we don't know that part yet," Mimi said.

"Don't worry! You know we can take on any kind of monster!" Sora said, smiling.

"Yeah, Sora's right! We defeated the Dark Masters and Apocalymon, whatever comes next will be a piece of cake!" Tai said, striking a determined pose.

"Exactly!" Agumon said.

Izzy sighed and continued typing, "I wish there were some other digimon around, then we could ask them about all of this. As of now, we have no leads at all."

Gatomon got an idea, "Wait! Kari, you said that the wind spoke to you, right? What did it say, do you remember?"

"Um... I don't really remember, 'cause I was so cold, but it was saying something like, 'Come to me, bow to me, obey me'. I guess the wind hasn't talked to any of you guys?"

The digimon shook their heads.

"I think you're the only one this happens to, Kari," TK said, "It was the same last time, remember?"

"Well then, Kari's our only lead," Izzy said, "So, I propose we go back to around where Tai and Kari had been when the wind spoke to Kari, and see if the same thing happens again."

"That's it? We're basically gonna use Kari as bait?" Tai said.

"I don't mind," Kari said, "It's the only way we'll find out what's threatening the Digital World."

"What Kari said," Izzy said, "We have no choice, unless we were to just sit here and hope that the evil decides to show itself to us properly."

Tai hesitated. He didn't want to put Kari in danger, but they had to defeat the evil threatening the Digital World, and to do that they had to know what it was, and if this was the only way...

Tai reluctantly agreed, "Fine. But if anything bad starts happening we get her out of there as soon as possible, alright?"

Izzy nodded, "Of course, I'd never want to endanger Kari."

"Good."

* * *

Everyone had now gathered in the desert, in what they thought was the approximate area where Tai and Kari had been when the wind attacked them. Night was beginning to fall, and it was getting colder.

"I hear it," Kari whispered, "The wind."

Everyone turned towards her, startled. Immediately after she said that, the wind began to blow, ascending from a gust to a howl resembling a tornado within seconds. The Digidestined took cover as sand blew all around them, except for Kari. She stared into space, transfixed by the presence of whatever was causing the wind.

"_Come with me, child,"_ it whispered.

"No," Kari replied, "No."

"_You have no choice, a light like yours must be eradicated for my peace to reign."_

"Your peace?"

"_The peace of darkness and nothingness. You shine too brightly, child."_

With that, Kari's entire body started flickering in and out of existence, resembling the static found on TV channels without signal.

"Tai! Gatomon!" she screamed, but when they looked up it was too late. Kari was gone and the wind had stopped; it had taken her with it.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short.

* * *

Kari was gone, she'd vanished without a trace. It was dark now, and eerily quiet without any wind.

"She's gone!" Tai yelled, "All because of your stupid idea!" he said, grabbing Izzy and shaking him.

Matt stepped over to them, "Tai, leave it! He didn't know that would happen!"

"What're we meant to do now, huh? Our 'lead' is gone! My sister is gone! We don't know who took her or where she went, we're no better off than before except _Kari's gone_!" he shoved Izzy away, and turned to hide his tears, "You know you'd say the same if it was TK who was taken, Matt."

"...Yeah, you're right. But we'll get her back, Tai!" Matt said, "We should be able to use the signals from our digivices to find her, and that will lead us to the enemy, too!"

Tai sniffed, "Good point. They better not do anything to hurt her, though! I'll make them pay if they do!"

"We'll be making them pay anyway, won't we?" Joe asked, "I mean, y'know."

"Yeah, well I'll make them pay more!"

"Um, anyway," Sora said, "Maybe we should rest for now and call it a night? It's gotten pretty dark."

"You're kidding, right? Kari was just kidnapped!" Tai said.

"I know, and I know we need to find her as soon as possible, but just look at your digivice. Can you even see her signal?"

Tai squinted at his digivice. He could hear a faint, rhythmic beeping, but couldn't make out the screen.

"I can hear it."

"Yeah, but it's too dark to see the screen!"

"...Oh. Yeah."

Sora smiled, "So since we can't do anything useful right now anyway, why not sleep until it's bright? Then we can search for her with new energy!"

Tai yawned, "Fine, I guess I am pretty tired. We're getting up and searching for her at the crack of dawn though, okay? Not a second later!"

The others didn't hear him though, as they'd already fallen asleep.

"...Fine. Be that way," Tai muttered, and settled down to sleep beside Agumon.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks everyone who's reading this, especially the ones who followed and favourited, and Digi-fanCapp for reviewing awesomely! :D

* * *

It was morning now, and everyone was awake except for Tai and Agumon.

"I remember," Sora said, "He always did sleep later than the rest of us. Yelling at us about how important it was to wake up early must have taken it out of him!" she laughed, and the others laughed with her.

Gatomon took Kari's whistle, which she had around her neck, and blew it, with Tai and Agumon jumping two feet into the air in surprise.

Everyone laughed again.

"What was that for?" Tai complained, "And- Kari! Why didn't you wake me up earlier? By now she could be-"

"We only woke up a few minutes earlier than you guys, calm down," Gomamon said.

"That's why I woke you up!" Gatomon said.

"Well," Tai said, taking out his digivice and reading Kari's signal on it, "What are we waiting for? Let's go! Her signal is faint, she must have moved further since last night!"

"I don't think so," Izzy said, "Since the wind seemingly teleported away somewhere, it was probably just as faint last night. It was too dark for you to see, remember?"

The Digidestined all started walking, following Tai's digivice.

"No," Tai muttered, "There has to be a way to get there faster... That's it!" he looked to Sora, "Sora! Can you get Biyomon to digivolve into Garudamon? Then she could fly us all there way faster than we could walk!"

"Great idea, no more walking!" Mimi said.

Sora looked to Biyomon, "Can you do that?"

"I don't see why not!" Biyomon said, "Biyomon, digivolve to... Birdramon! Birdramon, digivolve to... Garudamon!"

"Alright," Garudamon said, "Hop on, everyone!"

Everybody climbed onto Garudamon's back, and flew in the direction they'd been walking.

Tai stared intently at his digivice, "Yeah, this is a lot better! The signal's getting stronger by the minute!"

"Great, we'll be able to get Kari back in no time!" Gatomon said.

Izzy took his laptop out and began typing on it, "Interesting," he said, "The closer we get to wherever Kari is, the more haywire the location function on my computer goes."

"And that means...?" Tai asked.

"I don't know yet, but it's definitely notable."

"Well, whatever, I just hope we can get to her as soon as possible!"

"Don't worry, that's what we're doing," Izzy said.

* * *

Kari blinked, but could still only see pitch darkness.

"Wh-Where am I?"

As if to answer her question, she felt cold emanating from everywhere and nowhere.

She looked around frantically, but still saw nothing. "Where am I?" she asked, louder this time.

"_The world of darkness," _a voice said, _"And you'll be here until you're extinguished."_

"What do you mean, extinguished? Everything's so dark..."

"_You shine too brightly for my liking, child. I have to quench your light."_

"That's why I'm in this place?"

But the voice didn't respond, and the cold disappeared.

Kari listened to try and make out where she was, but heard nothing. She tried all her other senses, and noticed that she seemed to be floating in the air, since she couldn't feel any ground beneath her feet, nor any walls when she reached in any direction. She definitely still existed though, because she could touch her arms, head and body.

She sighed loudly. Her voice didn't echo, it just disappeared into the nothingness.

"_I wonder where I am," _she thought, _"And I hope the others can get me out of here... Maybe this darkness is the evil we came here to fight."_

"Gatomon!" she called out. She knew Gatomon wasn't within hearing distance, but she hoped that calling out with her heart would let Gatomon know she needed help.

"Tai!"

"_They can't hear you," _the darkness said.

"I know they can't hear me, but I think they can feel me."

"_No, there's no chance of that. Not from here."_

"There's always hope."

"_Not here. This is a place of no hope, so you'd best abandon those ideas right now."_

"_Is that what it meant when it said it had to quench my light?" _Kari thought.

"I don't give up that easily, you know," she said.

"_You don't have to, I can wait. We have all of eternity here for you to realise that it's hopeless and nobody's coming to help you. Then after you do, I can continue to gain control of the Digital World."_

"I won't let you do that, and neither will the others!" Kari said, "We'll never let you cover the world in darkness!"

She could feel the darkness flinching at her determination, and her vision was obscured by a bright light, which she suddenly realised was coming from her.


	9. Chapter 9

The Digidestined had been on Garudamon's back, flying for quite a while now, and the signal from Kari's digivice was getting stronger and stronger.

Izzy cried out in surprise as his laptop completely crashed, and the screen went dark.

"What happened?" Sora asked, "Did Tai hit it?"

"Hey!"

Izzy shook his head, "No. It had been behaving quite erratically already, and just then it crashed completely." He pressed a few buttons, "And it won't even reboot! This may be a bad sign."

"Well, it's too late to turn back now," Tentomon said.

"No way could we turn back!" Tai said, "We have to rescue Kari, remember?"

"Yeah, but-" Izzy began.

"No buts! We are saving her!"

Sora frowned. She was starting to have a bad feeling about this, but Tentomon was right, it was too late to turn back now.

"What's that, over there?" Mimi asked, pointing towards the horizon.

"I don't see anything," Joe said, "It just looks kinda dark."

Tai took out his telescope to get a better look.

"It's a black hole!" TK said, "In the middle of the sky!"

"He's right," Tai said, "A bit up there, the sky just kinda gave up and turned into a giant hole."

"What? A giant hole in the sky? That's it, it's too dangerous!" Joe said, standing up.

"What are you going to do, jump off?" Matt said.

"Well... I don't know, but we can't go into that hole! I'm getting a creepy vibe from that hole!"

"You get a creepy vibe from everything, Joe," Tai said, "And besides, you can't back out now!"

"Come on, Joe!" Gomamon said, "Be a man!"

"I am a man!" Joe said, "And men don't just walk into giant holes in the sky!"

"This one does," Matt said, pointing to himself.

"And this one," Tai said, doing the same.

"We aren't walking, Joe, we're flying!" Gomamon said, "Garudamon's giving us a lift, remember?"

"You know what I meant!" Joe yelled.

Sora laughed nervously, "Joe, come on, calm down. It's going to be fine."

"Hey, maybe we don't need to go in there at all," Mimi said, "For all we know, Kari could be somewhere else altogether."

Sora nodded, "Exactly!"

"Well, that's not really what my navigation system said," Izzy said, "In fact, according to my calculations and the signal from Tai's digivice, Kari should be right around where that black hole is."

Gatomon nodded, "Mm-hmm. She's there, I can feel her."

"Oh-no, we're getting closer!" Joe said.

"Don't worry," TK said, "We've gotten through worse than this before! Just believe in yourself- and us- and it'll be fine. We need to save Kari, that's the most important thing."

"So, we're flying into the giant hole in the sky?" Garudamon confirmed.

"Yep, straight ahead!" Sora said.

"Oh no..." Joe muttered.

"Alright, here we go!" Garudamon said, as she began to near the black hole, "Brace yourselves!"


End file.
